The philosophy of international law

Abstract

A ‘philosophy of public international law’ denotes two related projects. The demarcation of international law as law. And an investigation of how claims and concepts arising within international law are, or are made, true. Other research projects concerning international law presuppose elements of both of these forms of philosophical investigation. Put formally, a philosophy of law is a two-fold project. First, demarcation must identify how we distinguish the legal from non-legal. Second, critique must explain how the legal practices themselves distinguish the legal from the non-legal. We have, then, to encompass the substantive phenomena of international law within a wider enquiry into the basis of what constitutes a legal system. This means asking why we can call anything law, if and how we understand law as a system, and whether (international) law can be considered an open or closed system.